The Antares-type was fairly complicated in overall design. It was constructed on a horizontal spaceframe with the standard two-nacelle configuration. Jutting above and below the main spaceframe were the ship's cargo holds, with the largest being located below the axis of the vessel. The forward living section for a standard crew of twenty and bridge were located in the foremost position of the vessel. The deflector dish was centered in between the bottom of the forward living section and the bottom of the ship (TOS-R: "Charlie X")

The Antares-type originally existed as the robot grain ship, which originally appeared in Star Trek: The Animated Series. This class was the second Federation starship design, at the time, to appear in the Star Trek franchise.

The final draft script of "More Tribbles, More Troubles" (dated 23 April1973) described these "robot grain ships" as "two identical crop carrying robot ships, not as big as the Enterprise, but every bit as powerful. Because they have no life support modules, they can use all their power for payload."

The design was adapted for the remastered version of Star Trek: The Original Series because Michael Okuda highly approved of the configuration. He liked how it wasn't, like some of the other TAS vessels, too impressionistic. "It was obviously well thought out and it had a wonderful quality that you could quite clearly see came from Matt Jefferies' universe," recalled Okuda. "It seemed to follow the same design principles as the Enterprise, and yet it was dramatically different. It was my favorite ship on The Animated Series." The original animated design heavily inspired the CG model of the Antares, the Yorkshire, and the Woden, which appear in the remastered TOS episodes "Charlie X", "Court Martial", and "The Ultimate Computer" respectively. The same CG model was used for the Yorkshire and the Woden because everyone involved in depicting the Antares on screen was pleased with how the appearance of that ship turned out. (Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, issue 63, pp. 12 & 13)

The Antares and the Yorkshire had a bridge and living section amended to the body of the original design. The front extension as a crew module was confirmed by Producer Dave Rossi in an interview. [1]

According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia, (3rd ed., p. 470) the starship class of the Antares in "Charlie X" was called Antares-class.

According to Doug Drexler, on notes on his Facebook page, the Antares-type freighter was an older class of ship than the USS Enterprise. These ships measured 470 feet in length, with the crew module, and 343 feet in length, without the crew module. For the Antares and the Yorkshire, the name was on the side of the crew module, whereas, for the Woden, the name was on the side of the main hull. [2]